Ghost Ship on the Blue
by KaybreeAl
Summary: Future! AU where everything is the same, except Viserys lived. Takes place some time after the end of A Dance with Dragons, in a future where Daenerys and Viserys rule the seven kingdoms together. Viserys is taken captive by a pirate ship captained by Theon Greyjoy, who must keep him alive in order to ransom him to his sister who waits in the Red Keep.


FanFic Draft TwoOne Chapter One

The deck and the wind seemed to be competing to see which one could be colder as Viserys kneeled before the captain on the huge, swaying ship. He wood pressed into his knees was soaking, the rope tight about his wrists scratchy and damp, but at least, he mused, the blood matted into his chest hair was now crusty and dry. It was the wicked blade that waved before him that had left the deep slice that stretched across his torso, wielded by a tall, dark, smiling youth.

"Look," he was shouting, "at who we have found tonight boys!" A chorus of cheers erupted from the men and women scattered about the deck, hanging like exotic fruit from ropes and beams, or resting on barrels and crates filled with plundered goods. They surrounded Viserys' own men, who were lined up on their knees to either side of him, all with their hands bound behind their backs like his own. Most stared at the man pacing before them with fear; some looked to Viseryshim for comfort they did not find.

"A lovely band of Queen's men!" The man continued, waving his blade slick with both sea water and blood before himself as he walked, slashing haphazardly at the air. "On our sea! How unfortunate for them."

The youth was of an age with Viserys, though he looked to be slightly taller and heavier set than the silver haired man, who's slimly muscled arms seemed now lean when compared to the pair stretched across the captain's checaptains, which strained against the threads of his shirt. He had dark hair that was cut just above his ears whichthat had becometurned wavy and stiff in the sea Salt air of open sea. He smiled as he stalked back and forth before the silent line of sailors, a wide and easy smile that belonged on hisan angular face whichthat would have seemed, to Viserys, wring without it. It was a handsome face, graced with large blue eyes and shapely, full lips. He raised his arms above his head,, one hand brandishing his sword in the air calling for silence, and addressed the bound men.

"Who here is your captain?" he asked.

"I am." Viserys answered.

"And who are you, little lording, to be out so far to sea? Not a merchant obviously, there was precious little plunder to be had on your 'Wildfire'., Bbut why else would someone be braving an autumn sea?" He said it with such confidence thatso that Viserys knew this man had no reason himself to fear the storms that came so close toaccompanied Westeros' winter.

"Do you not know me? I know you You are Westerosi, and surely all men must know their King?" Viserys replied, straightening his shoulders and raising his chin.

"Ah, King? I am no longert interested in your politics, lordlingTargaryen. I have known too many kings in my time. Though I am interested in the ransom we shall receive for your head,"d! " Hhe shouted the last, raising his arms again to his sides to bathe in the delighted shouts from his crew as they slapped against barrels and crates to show their approval.

"And which Targaryen are you? what is your name, king" Hhe spat out the last word like an insult. "That is, if you are a Targaryen. Myself, I never had much faith in the dragons to hold a throne."

"I am Viserys Targaryen, rider of dragons and king of the seven kingdoms. My sister will make these ships burn if you try it pirate; , you must know our house words. She doesn't take kindly to having to ransom kin from sea dogsI am Viserys Targaryen, rider of dragons.," he was appalled at having to introduce himself to this man, thus scoundrel. All men should know his name.

"Haha!" Tthe man exclaimed. "Pretty threats from a pretty Prince!"

"King," Viserys interrupted.

"We shall see." The captain continued as if he had not heard the protest. "Are there no women on your crew?" He asked, turning from Viserys to survey the remaining men left lined up on deck and sheathed his the Prince.

"I needed a strong crew for autumn storms; I wouldn't allow women on my ship for such a voyage." Viserys eyed the smattering of wencheswomen decorating the deck, swords and daggers hanging from belted hips. "I would not arm them either." It was meant as an insult to the man who dared leave the well-being of his vessel to women, girls, who were better suited to tend gardens than to sail autumn seas;, but the captain only laughed. _He laughs at things he should not_, Viserys considered.

"Such I pity, I spare the women you know," He grabbed the face of the nearest man, suddenly lashing on with gloved hands, squishing his cheeks between finger and thumbstrong fingers. "I'm truly sorry you were not born with a cunt between your legs, boy. The halls of the Ddrowned God's halls must be getting crowded in my section of the sea." He let the boy go, a Martell bastard who had been Viserys'his squire, and allowed a barrel chested man to lift him bodily over one shoulder. He hadn't time to even dress as the pirates had descended and his thin brown legs kicked out from beneath nothing but a thin, cloth shift. Men to either side of Viserys were being pulled up by arms tied behind their backs, the pirate crew falling upon them with blades for those who struggled too hard against their captor's hands.. A scream bubbled up from the throat of the Martell boy who flopped like a fish against the shoulder of his captorhijacker.

"What are you doing with them? He's just a boy put him down!" Viserys cried, pulling at the ropes behind his own back. He tried to stand, but one firm hand pushed him back down, and the Prince looked up to see the dark haired captain beaming down at him. Half of his teeth gleamed gold.

"Fear not, Prince. The drowned God smiles upon your sacrifice! Maybe this old _Ssea Bbitch_ will stay afloat long enough to deliver you to your sister". Viseryssister". Viserys counted the splashes as each body hit the water. When the last screams had petered off into bubbling chokes, the captain stepped back from Viserys and yelled,

"Maester - where's our maester - Colm?" A big man turned to the captain. "Please fetch the maester, it looks like our Prince is quite injured,". He eyed the gash still bleeding across Vviserys' chest, expanding with each breath he took, then turned without another word to trot up the stairs to the upper deck. The big man, Colm, tool Vviserys by the arm and hoisted him up. He was led through a small door and down a flight of stairs, half lifted and half dragged by the fist pressing it'sits fingers into his bicep. At Viserys saw none of it, only the spindly brown legs kicking at the muscled back of the man who held them. _He was only a boy. _Down another flight of stairs and past an open door through which viserys could hear men yelling from bellow, he was eventually deposited in a tiny room nearat the frontback of the ship. The wooden walls and chests that lined them were all painted one, uniform umber red, though the paint was brighter in some areaschipped and dulled in some places that had been painted mostre recently. A table sat in the centre of the room, the only furniture that wasn't a chest or barreldidn't serve as some sort of container; a porthole was opened a crack on the northernmost wall, filling what would have been a stuffy room with a salty breeze. A man draped in the drab robes of a maester was perched lightly on one of the barrels with his back to the door and, his feet resting on another as he inspected athe tomb open on his lap, a book that looked to be thicker than either of his legs. He was brown as a nut, with hair even darker, made of tight curls that clung to his head and made his widows peak seem dramatically pronounced. His lips were full and womanly, his build slim, and thehis fingers that ran along the edge of one thick page seemed to taper into delicate points, rather than end it stub calluses likeand Vviserys' did.

"Colm," He sighed as the big man thrust his wide shoulder through the narrow doorway, his voice High and light and teasing., "Don't tell me - you have taken yet another arrow. No! Stabbed, you have definitely been stabbed this time. Honestly man, there are only so many times I can sew you back together-" his words were cut short as he spun, still sitting, to face the doorway and saw Vviserys standing there, his hair matted with saltwater and blood, his shirt and chest torn open and oozing.

"Who's this?" he hissed.

"Probably 1000 dragonsOur latest plunder. Stitch him up, EllarasAlleras. I'll be back shortly," Colm began retreatinged from the small infirmary before he had even finished speaking, leaving Vviserys standing dumbly with his back to the door which shut quietly behind him. He considered the man for a moment, and then addressed him. He knew that he should speak, but he was afraid that should he try only a scream would escape. _He was only a boy._

"You're shaking," The maester said. Viserys nodded, noticing the trembling of his limbs for the first time. Alleras hoisted himself from his perch and strode to the King, untying the ropes that bound his wrists together, and then pointed to the table to indicate that Viserys should sit. It was scarred and puckered with grooves that looked to be made with the blade of a knife. He obeyed, and dank the cup of sweet liquid that the Maester handed to him a moment later without question.

"Milk of the poppy. For the pain, and the shock," He waited until Viserys had rained it to speak again. "Who are you?" He asked, not unkindly, as he began cutting away the shirt from the silver-haired youth's chest.

"Viserys Targaryen," The maester paused, but only for a moment. When he said nothing more, Viserys spoke. "Your captain-"

""I'm Viserys Targaryen. Your captain-"

"Theon"

Theon."

"What?"

"The captain-. His name is Theon Greyjoy."

They stood staring at one another in silence, the man's eyes hard and man's voice was hard and cold, and the pair lapsed one again into silence as the maester worked. The name meant nothing to Viserys; this was a regular occurrence. He had spent most of his life in across the narrow sea, and the politics of the lesser lords and houses of Westeros he found upon his return were lost on him upon his return. Dany had seemed to learn the stacks and stacks of names, dates, sigils, and words almost effortlessly, while he had managed to commit only a little under half to memory. This was of little consequence in court or about the Red Keep, so often was Dany plastered to his side to offer him a whispered name or quiet reminder, but he found that it often divided him from more common men. He remembered few of the tales he had learnt as a boy in the Keep and few of the heroes that most men in Westeros seemed to worship. His education, after all, had been sparse. All he knew of the finer details of Westeros culture he had been forced to learn on the point of the Usurpers swords, one misstep away from being skewered. Poverty and fear, he found, made poor schooling companions.

"Greyjoy," He said eventually. "They're from around Moat Caillin, right?" It was half a question, half a declaration. Alleras looked up at Viserys, searching his face.

"No," He replied eventually. "The Iron Islands." The man seemed to wait or him to say more; when he did not, the stranger's eyes softene, and he turned away to continue examining the King's weeping wound.

"Right," Was all he said. The man seemed to wait for him to say more; when he did not, the stranger's eyes softened, and he held out a hand to viserys.

"I am EllarasAlleras. Alleras SandCome, let me see your chest," _A bastard from Dorne? _"This might be a bit painful. Try to look away." Viserys complied, electing to examine the table beneath him rather than at the Maester's fingers seemed keen on intruding. He grasped one of Viserys' hands in his own, and pulled him gently towards the table in the centre of the tiny cabin. As he lifted himself up onto the slab of wood, grimacing as the cut etched across his chest stretched and bled anew, he noticed that Lleather thongs for binding lay at each of its corners. They were used sometimes by Maesters to bind men down when a leg had to be sawed or stitches made to keep men from squirming; he wondered what injuries this Maester had to address on the ship that he needed such bindings.

"Do you know who it was?" EllarasAlleras asked, peeling back a stretch of Viserys' shirt to examine the wound more closely.

"Why would that matter?"

"Some men on here poison their blades." The prince fought down the urge to swat the man's hands away and claw at the wound himself..

"It was Theon," He spit out the name.

"Ahh, goodGood. You'll be fine then." He washed the wound first with salt water that he had Colm fetch, which splashed from the bucket messily as the ship rolled beneath them. When he was finished, the water was red. He then wrapped a thick layer of linens about the prince's chest, packing in a thick, sweet smelling ointment that seemed to sting and numb at the same time.

"You're lucky, the salt air kept the wound relatively clean. One benefit of working on a pirate ship, the landscape does half of the work for me," He smiled as he began packing away into various barrels and chests the collection ofvarious herbs he had used to mix the foul smelling ointment smeared across the youth's chest. Viserys' noticed as he did so that he wore no Maester's chain. The milked of the poppy had done a great deal to numb both the pain ebbing in his chest and his nerves; a sense of calm and comfort washed over him as he watched Alleras work. _He seems kind, and gentle. _Viserys considered. _Despite his employer._

"How did you come to work here anyway?" He asked. The man sounded Dornish, though there was a hint of something else to the lilt of his speech that he could not identify. Dorne had sided with him and his sister when they crossed the narrow sea; perhaps this one would be loyal to the Targaryen name.

"I came straight from old town. After the war I saw...no point in staying. I meant to travel to Braavos, seek my fortune there, but my ship was attacked by pirates."

"Theon?" EllarasAlleras nodded.

"I was captured, and when he saw my robes, he ordered me spared. He asked my story, sitting with me long into the night as I told him my recounted my talestory. Then I listened as he told me his. When the sun rose, he offered me a place in his crew, and I accepted."

"Just like that? He killed your friends, he almost killed you," Viserys struggled to keep his voice quiet, lest Colm, who waited outside, not take kindly to outbursts about his violent captain.

"You will understand when you know him, when you have heard him talk to the men. You will love him as I do then."

The hold was chilly and damp, half an inch of seawater somehow carpeting the wooden floor despite the lack of visible hole or leak. The room was too far below deck for a porthole, and so it was lit only by once flickering torch that threw quivering shadows across the floor. There was only one cell, kept from the door by a wall of bars, which he thanked the seven he occupied alone. There was, with a bucket for a chamber pot and a bed of sopping straw in place of a hammock. He pushed the bucket to the corner of the room farthest from which lay his bed of hay, and then attempted to arrange the damp stalks into something on which he could stay relatively dry for a night. Satisfied with his work, a messy pile too short for his long limbs but thick enough that when laying on it his body would be above the majority of the water, he lay down, resting his head against folded hands. The pirate's ship had come on them just after sun down the day before, fire splitting the night with pops and hisses as the horde had come pouring onto his deck. He hadn't even time to dress as he ran to defend his ship, but his men had been taken unaware and in their beds, and the battle was over hours before dawn. He was weary - from his lack of sleep, from fighting through the night, from the ache in his bones and the hunger gnawing in his gut - but weariness he had been accustomed to. His heart was wearier than his body, and when he closed his eyes he saw his men, bound and shackled, being thrown to the sea. He heard their cries swallowed by hungry waves, and as he shivered beneath the decks of a stranger's ship, his fingers traced the burns the ropes had left on his wrists.

He woke shivering and hot, his clothing soaked through and the linens across his chest streaked red and brown as his blood stained the already dripping cloth. The pail in the corner had tipped during the night and its foul mixture colored the water that lapped up against his skin. He recoiled in disgust upon seeing this, pushing himself as far into the cells corner and pulling his knees up nearly to his chin.

"Hello!" He called, though he wasn't sure that anyone could hear him through the thick wooden door that sealed the small prison off from the rest of the ship, even if someone was posted outside. "I need EllarasAlleras! Can someone please fetch your Maester!" He yelled again, waiting silently for a reply. Outside the hall was silent, and the prince began to doubt that anyone at all had been left to guard his little chamber. He sat, staring at the wall for a time, until the stench of blood and shit and piss became too much, and the hot, itching pain from beneath his bandage began to make his fingers twitch with anxious energy. He first peeled off his torn shirt, an undershirt once white but now stained red and brown, shredded so that it revealed more than it covered. He tore a strip from it, He first tore the soaked bottoms from his pant legs, using a strip which is used to tie his matted, long silver blonde hair from his eyes, and dis guarded the rest on the floor. He then peeled back the bandages from his chest, un-wrapping several layers from around his torso before finally exposing the raw wound beneath. It was hot to the touch, and red, oozing blood and a thick, sticky white liquid in some places that seemed ominous to the youthPrince. He considered rewrapping himself with the bandages, but decided against it upon noting that the once white linen had been dyed more red and brownthat they were too soiled to touch the wound again, so those were dropped onto the floor as well.

It was another two hours before the door to the hold was shoved open, parting the water for a pair of worn leather boots that splashed up tiny, noisy little waves. He had been expecting Colm, or perhaps EllarasAlleras, but it was the captain that emerged from the doorway, sweeping a cloak long enough to drip onto the ground behind him, and approacheding the bars of Viserys' cage. He was smiling, his gold teeth glinting as he moved.

"Good morning, littledragon prince! I trust you slept well," He spoke cheerily, his hands clasped behind his back and has body swaying with the motion of the ship.

"Do not mock me." Viserys croaked. His throat was rough and raw.

"Mock? Never," Theon replied. "I was told you were calling. That looks..." He gestured towards Viserys' chest. "Well, awful." The Captain let his eyes travel down the length of Viserys' torso, lingering as they passed over his chest, which shone with sweat and seawater. The silver-haired youthprince blushed, resisting the sudden urge to cover his bare torso. Instead, he threw back his shoulders, pulling himself up to stand barefoot in water that sloshes about his toes.

"Brilliant observation, Captain. If you want your ransom, you know I do have to be _alive_ when you deliver me to my sister?"

"'Alive' is such a loose term, don't you think?" Viserys had thought it impossible, yetIf possible, his smile grew wider. HeViserys' splashed over to stand before Theonhim, clutching the bars separating the two men with shaking hands.

"Have you ever seen a dragon, boy?"

"I would like to," His breath smelled of mint. The prince found himself blushing again, and turned so that the pirate wouldn't see.

"Anyway," Theon continued, "EllarasAlleras is waiting on the upper deck. The sea air is cleansing or something like that. I am but your humble companion for the journey." He removed a key from a thong around his neck, opening the door for Viserys and holding one arm out, as if for the other man to take in his own. He ignored it, hobbling stiffly before Theon and into the hallway, refusing to even glance at him as he was followed up onto the deck. The pirate followed close enough behind him that Viserys could smell the musk of his sweat, buried beneath the scent of wine.

EllarasAlleras was standing on the prow of the ship, robes flapping as the wind pulled and tugged them against his flesh, his eyes closed against the sting of salt air. Viserys sucked in a deep breath as they approached him, reveling in the fresh air against his skin,which cooleding the burning of the wound gaping on his chest. It was chilly, as the days on autumn seas tended to be, and histhe flesh prickled with goose bumps as his wet pants pressed against ithis skin, burning with cold from the gusts buffeting both sails and sailors. A stool was waiting for Vviserys, who strained to keep himself from collapsing onto it. He felt bitter cold, and his bodyskin stung with each touch; the short climb from the hold to the upper deck had left his legs weak and shaking.

"Where are we?" He asked, staring at the endless sea that surrounded the boat.

"Somewhere along the Braavosi coastline," Theon replied.

"Somewhere?" the ship needed resupply in he knew, he had seen some of EllarasAlleras' stores as the maester had bound his wound; stopping at a harbour loyal to the Queen to replenish the ships supplies could mean escape. At worst, a messageletter to his sister could be sent if he had but a moment along and an ear in which to whisper it.. DaenerysShe wouldn't know about his capture otherwise for weeks yet, and even then she would know only that he was missing. until she failed to receive a raven from him telling here landed safely in the ports of Bravos, and even then Sshe would have no idea as to where to begin the search for him.

"We stop soon, the wine stores are running low," Hhe leant on the railing as he spoke, as casual as if speaking to an old comrade. "I don't know if you know this, but wine is integral to the captaining ofcontaining a pirate ship. Sailors take their wine very seriously, Prince." Aas iIf to highlight the importance of his words, he took a long swig from skin hanging around his waist, letting rivulets of the dark red pour from the corners of his mouth. He held the skin out to Vviserys, who turned from the captain at the offer.

"Stop teasing him, Theon," EllarasAlleras chided, frowning at the man who laughed at Vviserys' creeping blush. "Where have you been keeping him? He's filthy!" Tthe maesterman began to prod at Vviserys, feeling his skin with those delicate hands and wiping down the wound cracked open again on his chest.

"What do you mean filthy? He's not even wearing a shirt! At most only half of him can be truly dirty." Hhe laughed, but the Maester's frown deepened as he wiped a string of thick, white ooze from the cut.

"He's feverish, Theon. He cannot stay in the hold again. Find some other place for him." Viserys winced at a stab of pain as EllarasAlleras wiped an ointment across the gash; embarrassed anew, he straightened his shoulders and clenched his jaw. He would not show the captain his pain.

"Where should I put him? Surely not with the crew."

"Don't trust your own men, wretch?" Viserys barked.

"I know what I would do in their place, little dragon," He stared sadly at the Prince, the smile slipping from his . "Sometimesface. "Sometimes heartache is more powerful than loyalty. You'll find no friends aboard this ship." EllarasAlleras stood to face Vviserys, keeping him from asking the captain what that meant.

"When did you last eat?" He thought back to the previous days.

"The day before last," He was surprised; hunger didn't gnaw at his gut as it should have, though his thirst was strong. _That's a bad sign. _He regretted turning away from the skin of wine.

"You're not going to have a prisoner to ransom if you continue treating him like this," EllarasAlleras chided his captain. "A dragon is worth much more with a beating heart, you know."

Viserys was fed in the captain's cChambers, dining not with Theon but with EllarasAlleras. T as the dark haired youth elected to stay aboard the deck, one lazy hand on the tiller as the other clutched at the skin of wine insisting the two eat alone. Viserys too was given wine, and milk of the poppy to dull the ache in his chest and the fever chilling his bones. EllarasAlleras dressed him in a pair of black britches and a tunic as yellow as gold from the captains own closet, even donning him in a long, black woolen cloak which he fastened about Vviserys' throat with a pin in the shape of a Kraken a with a spear through its belly. He fingered at the broach trying to recall the sigil of house Greyjoy. _A fish? A squid? _Once again he wished that Dany was at his side.

EllarasAlleras slept in the same room that functioned as his surgery in a hammock strung between two of the larger barrels; the only bed on the ship belonged to Theon and resided in his cabin. It was decided, by EllarasAlleras when Theon seemed to take no interest in the matter, that Viserys would stay with the maester, both to keep him out of the cold, watery sludge of the hold and to ensure that he and his health could be more easily monitored. A guard was posted outside the Maester's door, which remained locked during the night. EllarasAlleras, evidently, did not mind being locked in with the Prince, despite threats muttered over dinner about "waking the dragon".

The next morning, his fever was worse, and as he was dragged onto the upper deck so that his wound could be cleaned, he wrapped the woolen cloak tightly around himself to keep out the chill. Despite his worsening health, Viserys was thrilled as a hazy finger of land emerged from the horizon as the salty wind whipped at his matted hair. Theon was aleady above deck, ye resting on the fast approaching shore. His gaze swept easily over the maester as they approached, but his own greeting seemed to catch upon his tongue as he saw Viserys, resplendent in his new finery. The man thought Theon might throttle him for a moment, or else weep. Viserys pulled at the tunic to straighten it and averted his eyes. Alleras pulled a crate over to the King, indicating that he should sit. He was tired of sitting, and yet he shook with exhaustion already.

"We land today?" He asked, trying to hide his embarrassment at being so weak. Alleras nodded absentmindedly, already worrying at the bandages on Viserys' chest, and the youth could not help but smile. _Escape, _he hoped. Theon, seeing his smile, leant to the prince's ear to mutter

"Don't get too excited, little dragon. A Braavosi smuggler port. They would refuse to even let us to harbour if they thought I had a Prince Targaryen aboard this ship," His breath still smelled of mint.

"Why would that be? House Targaryen is a friend to Bbravos, better even than was the usurper or any of his progeny."

"But these men are not Braavosi. You and your sister are not well loved in the free cities." That, at least, was true, the PrinceViserys knew. His sister and he had left the cities ravaged, barren, and angry; their departure from Essos has not been as much abandonment a desertion as a flight from an angry people. Daenerys had wept for her children from the back of her dragon that night, but Viserys had smiled from his. He did not miss the stinking, dirty cities of slaves and graces. He did not even miss Quarth, despite the pleasure it had been to stay for a time. Westeros was his home, and it pained him to be from it for long; even now, after being home for so long once again. _Westeros is my home. I have no place in Essos. _

"What are they doing in Braavos?"

"You've heard of smuggler parts, yes?" He had. They were harbors, sometimes as large as villages, populated by criminals and vagabond who did trade and passed on information. The one squatting on the shores of the Braavosian coastline big, one of the largest Viserys had ever seen; a colorful mess of mismatched houses spread out before a rickety, rotting dock.

He forced himself to look down, turning his eyes to the puckered wood of the deck rather than at the tiny port town approaching as the boat pushed through the waves; this was only his third day aboard the ship, and already he was growing panicked that the autumn seas would claim it, and him, before he could see his Westeros again. He thought of Dany instead, filling his mind with her face rather than face the sight of Essos once more.

Alleras soon finished dressing his wound, still angry and red, but hHe was allowed to stay on deck as the ship eventually pulled into the tiny harbor, watching the sun crawl across the sky as sailors moved between land and ship., Ssome leaving left with crates, some returning returned with women, still more rolling rolled barrels of wine that Viserys knew would be opened before the day was done. Theon met a man waiting on the dock as soon as planks that formed a bride between land and ship were raised, and the two disappeared into what looked like a small in until long after the sun had reached its zenithinn visible from the youth's vantage on the upper deck. Viserys was left with EllarasAlleras, and the two chatted idly for some time; despite being as much a warden as a maester, the prince found the young man pleasant to talk with. He was from Dorne, as he had told Viserys had guessed, the bastard of one of the greater lords there. He spoke fondly of his father and his sisters, of which there had been seven when he had left Dorne to become a maester. _Of Dorne and old Town, _Viserys thought, _and yet more loyal to the pirate who killed his friends than to the crown. _

Theon emerged alone from the inn sometime around mid-afternoon, when flies buzzed noisily in the air and the shore seemed to Viserys to shimmer like water beneath a bloated sun. When the captain returned, EllarasAlleras left the two to look for some of the more common healing herbs he required in the town after brief discussion with the captain, who was instructed to remain with his prisoner until Alleras could return.

"Let him walk!" The maester called from the lower deck as he prepared to leave. "And for the Seven's sake give him a proper meal." _I am a dragon, not a dog, _Viserys scowled. .

Theon waved in tacit agreement, but turned and rested his elbows against the railing of the ship, staring out over the open water ahead as soon as Alleras was out of sight among the scant, ramshackle houses that made up the harbor..

"How long has it been since you last saw land? And yet you still stare out at the sea,"When will you weary of the sea?" Viserys remarked drylyquietly. His fever was worse today, and he felt weak and lifeless, too fatigued to care with whom he spoke. He was lonely, a stranger on a strange boat in the middle of an ocean he didn't know._If I am to spend the day with a madman, he will not be blessed with my silence. _ Theon looked vaguely surprised that the Prince had spoken, and Vviserys thought for a moment that the captain was preparing a mocking reply. Instead, he smiled; it was not his usual grin, but a soft curve of his lips that hid his golden teethnodded. He had dimples, the King noticed.

"Have you ever truly loved, Viserys?" It was the first time he had called him by his true name.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Viserys replied.

"Have you loved enough to die for something? Sacrifice yourself to it completely?" Theon turned to face him, studying his eyes with brows pulled together to form the slightest of creases between them.

"What would a pirate know about love?" Viserys had meant it as a slight, but Theon's face cracked into a smile at the question. He turned back to the sea, pulling the skin of wine from his belt. _Does he mock me? _

"QAh, quite right little dragon. Love is lost on vagabonds like me." They shared a scant meal of bread and dried meat, Theon making japes at a wordless Viserys, at once point going to far as to teasingly push the King's shoulder in delight at one of his own jokes. That was met with an icy stare. The two sat silently after that, watching the sun sink lower towards the horizon. Viserys wondered why he was not returned to Ellaras quarters, but preferred the sea breeze to the stuffy Maester's room, which always smelled too strongly of lavender and so refrained from asking the captain.

EllarasAlleras returned some time after dark, taking the steps to the upper Deck two at a time with his Maester's robes hiked up almost to his waist in his haste. Theon turned to meet the man, and was shoved up against the ships rail as EllarasAlleras ran into him, gripping his forearms with white knuckled hands.

"Theon, there is a matter we must discuss. Privately." The pirateTheon glanced at Vviserys, still perched on his cratelittle stool, and steered the Maester's away with one hand on his shoulder. EllarasAlleras was clearly agitated, and several whispered curses were hissed loud enough to reach Vviserys ears. He clearly heard at multiple points in the conversation a muttered "Nymeria", and at one point, Theon half yelled "Yunkai?" in surprise. , including the words "Nymeria" and "Yunkai". Viserys thought he could remember meeting a Nymeria, a Dornish bustard, during his and Daenerys' wedding feast, but he doubted that the two were one and the same. After several minutes of conspiratorial whispersmuttering, EllarasAlleras broke from Theon to disappear below deck. T, while the captain approached to lift Theon from his cratestool with a large hand around one of Vviserys biceps'. He flexed instinctively.

"What's happening? What's wrong with EllarasAlleras? " He asked as he was half lifted across the deck, and down beneath it to Ellaras' Chambers, Theon's hands gripping hJim tightly the whole way.

"The maester is leaving us. TheirHer - his sister is in need of assistance. I believe something to do with your _lovely_ sister, Targaryen." He wondered again at wheather or not Nymeria could be the Dornish woman he had met so long ago. They followed the maester below deck, where they found found EllarasAlleras stuffing a saddle already fat and heavy with a collection of herbs and sacks, attempting both to pack and to sling a dark woolen cloak about his shoulders at the same time.

"Slow down, Ella you have time. Let me help-" Theon began, but EllarasAlleras cut him off.

"No one can come in here while I'm gone Theon. Not even you, not him," He gestured to Viserys. "No one, you hear? Find some other place to keep your little prisoner – not the hold." Evidently finished packing, he slung the cloak properly about himself and hoisted the saddle onto one shoulder. Theon tried to speak, but was interrupted once again.

"I'll meet you on Dragonstone, you know the place. Try to wait for me," He shoved a small bundle into Theon's hands. "Take care of the Targaryen. Only you, I don't trust the other men. Clean his wound twice a day, or you won't have a dragon left to ransom." He tried to move past his captain, headed towards the door, but Theon stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Be safe. I will wait." EllarasAlleras stared for a moment, and then leant up to kiss him lightly on the cheek with the tenderness of a lover. Nothing else was said as the maester blew past the men and out the door. Viserys listened to the thump of his footsteps on the stairs, hurried and stumbling.

"Well, Prince," Theon said, turning to Viserys. "I suppose you're all mine now."


End file.
